Tuesday, March 04, 2014

call outs and transparent decision making

report from the roundtable – 25 feb

At the last meeting of council I happened to
ask about an application as we’d received a petition objection to the
application that night. I was concerned about the length of time it was taking for the application
to come back to council as it was, for all intents and purposes, a repeat
application with revised acoustic treatment (for a Go Kart facility in
Chirnside Park).

It was advised that the application had been ‘called
out’ by the Ward Councillor, Cr Andy Witlox, meaning that the application would
not come before council for a decision and the decision would be made by planning officers who
through the call out had been given the ‘delegated authority’ to make the
decision.

Given 11 households were represented on the
petition I went on to ask whether objectors would be notified that the
application had been called out and wouldn’t be coming to council for a decision
as per the expectations of the objectors. Usually any application with more than 5 objections would come to council for a decision. It was confirmed that objectors would
only be notified once a decision had been made and would have appeal rights through
VCAT.

I went on to ask if objectors had been
notified or were aware of the call out. This could not be confirmed.

This is of concern to me, in terms of being in the spirit of open and
transparent decision making. I’ve also discussed call in/call out powers with
councillors from other councils and it seems that different councils approach delegations in
many different ways, some not having any ability to call out planning
applications at all.

Next time council reviews its delegations and
call in/call out powers I’ll be suggesting some policy changes to ensure we
have a more open and transparent process that both considers the needs of the
applicant and the objectors.

Cr Dunn referenced a petition received by Council objecting to a go kart
application in Chirnside Park. Cr Dunn asked the following questions to Andrew
Paxton, Director Planning Building & Health:

When will the application be brought back to Council?

Andrew Paxton advised that the application had been called out by the
Ward Councillor for a delegated decision.

Will the objectors listed in the petition be notified of the application
coming to Council as part of the planning process?

Andrew Paxton advised that the 11 objectors to the application would not
be advised of the callout of the application by the Councillor, but would be
notified of the decision and would have 21 days to appeal the decision.

Had there been any meetings or correspondence with objectors in relation
to the call out?

Andrew Paxton advised that he did not know the answer but would be able
to obtain the information and advise Cr Dunn.

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About Me

It's a great honour and privilege to serve the people of the Lyster Ward. I was voted onto council in 2005 and have been re-elected twice since with a Greens record 58.93% primary vote in 2012. I'm passionate about the community and I enjoy working with them to shape an even better future. This term on council I will be representing the various township groups in Lyster, Belgrave Hub Project Steering Committee Birdsland Advisory Committee, Burrinja, Eastern Regional Libraries Corp, Eastern Transport Coalition, Fire Management Committee, Graffiti Working Group and the Municipal Emergency Management Committee. In 2009 I was elected as Chairperson of the Eastern Transport Coalition and continue to serve in that role. In 2011 I was elected President of the Victorian Local Governance Association after serving two years as Treasurer. In Dec 2013 I stood down as President as I was preselected to run for the Greens in Eastern Metropolitan in the 2014 state election. IMAGES FROM THIS BLOGSITE MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED OR REPUBLISHED WITHOUT PERMISSION, if you wish to use an image just ask by emailing samantha.dunn@vic.greens.org.au. ANONYMOUS AND/OR OFFENSIVE COMMENTS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED.